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Halifax LGBTQ2S+ history: The Dresden Arms Hotel

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For Halifax Pride I will be conducting a virtual tour of sorts of some significant spots in Halifax LGBTQ2S+ history. Today is the Dresden Arms Hotel.

🖤💜💙💚💛🧡❤️

According to Nancy Brister the beverage room on the first floor of the Dresden Arms Hotel, at 5530 Artillery Place, was a Halifax bar where lesbians outnumbered gay men in the 1970s.

The women who went there were “quite out” and people from the hotel used to come down to watch the lesbians.

The women started going to the Dresden Arms because they were no longer welcome at their previous bar.

Adapted from a Facebook post by Rebecca Rose, author of the excellent Before the Parade, A History of Halifax’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Communities, 1972-1984.

Recovering Local LGBTQIA2S+ Histories, a public event with Rebecca Rose, scheduled for Saturday July 25. Check out the Facebook event here. Register via eventbrite.

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